Social interactions like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook shares, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their brand on social media as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social media, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community on the planet. It has been estimated that an average post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using GooglePlus each week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a web page has, the authority of the person tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus your URL has amassed, number of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can indirectly influence search traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as relevant as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your services, company, or brand on social media, spy on your competitors, identify new market opportunities, measure the impact of campaigns, and be alerted to crises. It can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific businesses, brands, products, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, social media signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by a cross-section of groups that include market research, marketing teams, digital reputation managers, social media marketing agencies, professional sales reps, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, small businesses do not have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many service providers have made available affordable tools and solutions to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to identify consumer behavior around their products or brands so they can respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in a timely fashion.
We have created a comprehensive article listing many social media measurement tools and technologies that will help you keep track of online trends, monitor competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that can affect your business, etc, see what conversations are taking place online that affect your business,etc. For more details, go here:
(Are you tracking social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple, yet effective social media monitoring plugin for WordPress and increasing your social media exposure.
Announcing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s task is to convert all the reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any user can operate … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand websites over a period of three months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. From these tests, they were able to notice a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can positively impact your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Easy To Install And Implement. Ready To Use In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs like any plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s job is to convert all red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social marketing campaigns require investing more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track The Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you track and monitor social activity from social media networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Digg, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon directly from your WP dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many features to website owners. Here are just some:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows the latest information from your WP dashboard, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updates. You can update SocialMetricsPro in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive email notifications whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal hosting resources consumption. Social reports are generated fast, consuming minimal server resources. Reports also include the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server resources consumed when gathering data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, category, publishing date, or post type.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered, sorted data and custom queries in Excel for further analysis. Data can be exported in tab-delimited and comma-separated file formats, and imported to the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just convert red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are a couple of the testimonials and comments that customers have submitted for SocialMetricsPro:
”Our entire marketing strategy relies on social media. Each post on the site has viral potential, but we needed one place to see which social networks are performing the best for us…We went ahead and got the PRO Version of Social Metrics.” Syed Balkhi, Founder of List25 and WPBeginner.com
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”I give Social Metrics a big thumbs up and I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about tracking their social sharing analytics.” James Johnson, Senior Editor at The Inquisitr
Useful Tips
A step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
SocialMetricsPro Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full money-back guarantee.
Product Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This license option enables you to activate SocialMetricsPro on a single web site. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This allows you to run Social Metrics Pro on multiple websites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost to purchase SocialMetricsPro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price shown above was correct at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the software seller when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing here:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Our Recommendation
As mentioned earlier, Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives users instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and shows them where to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to see measurable results.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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